As I have mentioned, I just moved to DC from NYC and one of the reasons was that I wanted to move into a bit of a different area professionally.
Since I’ve been here, I’ve been doing a tremendous amount of study and research on where I can take myself next and where my skills and interests might benefit companies and organizations in DC.
Anyway, this morning I was reading a list of leaders discussing the challenges, trends and opportunities in Washington in 2012. What seemed to be most relevant to the government and government contractors is things like innovation, streamlining processes, and being alert to the new needs that will arise.
Another word that kept popping up was austerity.
Which got me to thinking about how to deliver products and services on a budget.
#1. Its all about efficient operations and squeezing as much of the meaningless out of the process as possible. Let me be clear, this doesn’t mean working your people to death and cutting salaries, it means making sure that you deliver products and services in a smart and effective manner.
#2. Training is another huge key to better delivery of services. While the up front costs to an organization may be much more than waiting for the qualities you need to show up at your door, I think for both government and its partners, training and education will allow for much smarter decisions and better delivery of services.
As an aside, fostering an organization that has an emphasis on training is also going to build a healthy organization over the long term because personal growth and happiness are going to be much more likely within organizations that emphasize growth and education. Consequently, happy employees are more likely to work more effectively.
#3. Brad Antle of Salient Federal Solutions talked about “a new breed of partner for the government” and to me, that should include partners that have a diversity of knowledge and skill so that they are able to react not only to a specific situation but to an overall environment of flux and growth.
These are just 3 thoughts that popped into my head this morning as I was going through my routine. Let me know what you think in the comment section.